A Texas high school senior used his graduation speech this month to announce to his family, friends and fellow students that he’s gay.
Mitch Anderson, a member of Belton High School’s 2013 graduating class, told a local radio station that he had never come out to anyone before his salutatorian speech at the Bell County Expo.
“Once I got up there and started talking, I felt completely fine,” Anderson, who lives in Temple, Texas, told KTEM News Radio.
In his speech, Anderson said that he was guilty of self doubt and “relying on others to give my life definition.”
Then, he revealed his sexuality.
“But that time has passed,” he told his fellow graduates, “and I feel the moment has arrived for me to be publicly true to my personal identity. So now, I can say, I’m gay. It is both a significant portion of who I am and an inconsequential aspect. It’s as natural and effortless to me as breathing. I couldn’t change myself even if I wanted and, believe me, I have.”
After the speech, Anderson spoke with several reporters, telling them that he had contemplated suicide at times during his high school career and that his feeling of self-worth was all but diminished.
“I became so dejected, that many times I thought of killing myself not just because I saw no point to life, but because I had been convinced that doing so would actually make the world better,” he told Yahoo News. “And so, for many years, I continued the cyclical, destructive thought patterns. This happened both before and after I thought about my sexuality. And after I had realized I was gay, I hated myself. I wished and prayed endlessly that I could just go on with life normally, that I could be like everyone else. Being different felt like a curse, an unfair sentence to the life of an outcast.”
Anderson said he was inspired by Madonna, Lady Gaga and Star Trek star Zachary Quinto to come out.
“When you feel like you will be abandoned, alienated, and cast out, ignore the sources of such toxicity,” Anderson said during his speech. “I believe Zachary Quinto put it best by saying, ‘If people don’t want to work with me because of my sexual orientation, then I have no interest in working with them to begin with.’ This statement can be applied to any situation you encounter where someone is put off by your expressing yourself.”
After his speech, he received a standing ovation and most of the reaction since has been positive, said Anderson, who was part of his high school’s swimming team.
But that doesn’t mean there has been no negative reaction to his very public coming out.
“It’s a little bit hurtful,” he told KTEM. “But it’s really no big deal. I’d rather they direct their hate and anger at me, rather than someone else, because I know I can take it and blow it off.”
Anderson will attend the University of Texas this fall.
